Ethereum’s transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm triggered a drop in prices for graphics processing units (GPUs) in China – their sales reached the lowest level in history.
Low demand from Chinese miners who previously bought expensive graphics cards such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 forced suppliers to cut GPU prices by a factor of three.
Shanghai-based seller Peng said that the most expensive GPUs have fallen in price by more than 37% over the past three months, from 8,000 yuan ($1,140) to 5,000 yuan ($712). According to him, the decline in demand and prices for video cards is due to the fall of the cryptocurrency market, the ban on mining in China and new restrictions due to COVID-19.
“When the bitcoin mining wave was at its peak, miners were buying up all the graphics cards we had in the store for cash. Right now, almost no one is buying new computers and graphics cards because of the coronavirus,” Peng said.
His colleague Liu confirmed that the Ethereum merger was the “trigger” for the collapse in GPU prices. According to him, in the last two months, even the most inexpensive video cards for mining have fallen in price by more than 50%, including in the secondary market.
“I had a client who bought an RTX 3080 graphics card for 9,400 yuan ($1,320) late last year and now has to sell it for less than half that price,” he added.
A major Shanghai electronics retailer, BuyNow, as a result of a correction in the video card market and a crisis in the cryptocurrency market, has reduced the recommended retail price for graphics processors by more than 33%.
In anticipation of the Ethereum merger, graphics card prices fell by an average of 10%. While this “crash” could lead to the closure of many online stores, for non-mining shoppers, it is the end of a two-year nightmare when retailers maxed out and kept GPU prices high due to high demand from miners.
At the same time, many miners who previously specialized in ether mining are looking for alternatives. At the beginning of the month, the mining company Hive Blockchain began testing its equipment for mining various cryptocurrencies. The company said that it is looking for a replacement for ether, which became impossible to mine after the transition to PoS.
Source: Bits
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